BOSTON — All season the Bruins have used Zdeno Chara at the front of the net on the power play. The immovable mountain scored a career-high 10 power-play goals while blotting out the sun.

Yet when the Bruins were granted a 5-on-3 for 21 seconds Sunday in the first period against the Red Wings, Chara was stationed back at his old position on the right point. Loui Eriksson planted himself in front of Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard.

Eriksson screened Howard on a Chara shot that rebounded to the corner to David Krejci. Eriksson slid over to his left, then shifted back when the puck swung to Patrice Bergeron at the middle of the blue line. When Bergeron let go a wrister that was knocked down in front of the net, Eriksson crashed on it. Taking out three Red Wings — defensemen Brian Lashoff and Kyle Quincey plus Howard — Eriksson did all the dirty work leading to Reilly Smith's goal.

It was the punctuation mark on a dominant first period in the Bruins' 4-1 Game 2 victory, which evened the series at 1-1 leading into Tuesday's Game 3 in Detroit.

"When you're in front, you just try to be in front, but be so that he can't see the puck," Eriksson said. "You need some luck too, and I thought we got some luck there with the rebound and through his legs and Smitty was able to score that one."

The Bruins have plenty of options for net-front presence when they want to take advantage of Chara's slapper at the point. Milan Lucic, Jarome Iginla, Patrice Bergeron and Carl Soderberg are all bigger bodies and have experience playing there. Yet on the two-man advantage, Eriksson is the one tabbed.

The 6-foot-2, 196-pound Eriksson is not a hulking presence. As he said of the 6-foot-9 Chara, "He's a bit bigger than me."

Yet on his normal unit, Eriksson and Carl Soderberg station themselves along the goal line at the opposite posts. Both Swedish forwards excel at the short, crisp passes that define Swedish hockey. Eriksson is a danger to pass or score from in close.

"[Eriksson] positions himself well, he finds pucks well, he tips them well," Julien said. "He's been good in that area for a long time. We'd seen him do that before. We had the guys from the units that we felt could play those different types of roles, and on his power play, it's a different type of setup. So in his case, he doesn't always have to be there, although him and Carl do switch and he does that job.

"But on the 5-on-3, he's one of those guys that we feel comfortable with being in front because he will stand and do a good job and finding the puck with his stick, so he does a good job of putting those pucks in. That's why he's there."

Page 2 of 2 - Former Red Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom was one of the best at screening goaltenders. Holmstrom wore extra pads to handle the beating of pucks and elbows. Eriksson looked up to the fellow Swede as an example of net-front presence.

"I think everyone knows how good a job he did in front of the net in this league," Eriksson said. "I think a lot of guys look at that and how he was in front. He always was in front of the goalie and did a good job there. That's a good guy to watch if you want to learn something from that."

In the third period Sunday, Chara put the Red Wings away with his own power-play goal. Chara battled with Niklas Kronwall in the crease, then slid to face Jarome Iginla as the winger gathered the puck on the right-side half-wall. As Iginla lined up his shot, Chara did not try to screen Howard. The captain put his stick down and positioned himself for the tip. Howard stopped Chara's deflection, but Chara stuffed in the rebound.

Putting the goalie in a shadow is only part of the task for Chara. He's spent time before and after practices taking shots from teammates, deflecting and angling them into the net.

"He's been practicing that quite a bit," Julien said. "He's taken the time to get better at that and it's made a big help for him. His size was obviously a real important part of why we put him there, but you had to have the rest to be components to be successful to work on. He did, and it's gotten better over the course of the year."

Other than Kronwall, the Red Wings do not have big and strong defensemen. Their blue liners prefer to play in space. The Bruins want to get the puck down low, especially on the power play. They have plenty of options in their toolbox, both big and small.

"I want to be in front," Eriksson said. "That's where the goals are scored and I thought yesterday some guys did a great job of getting in front. We got some goals from it and we need to do that."

Dan Cagen can be reached at 508-626-3848 or dcagen@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanCagen.